A Matter of Bait and Bite
by tamagopants
Summary: -Axel/Saïx- Axel's bored, and contrary to popular belief, Saïx is quite adept at having fun – it just depends on who he's with. Christmas oneshot.


_**Disclaimer:** Characters are copyright to Square Enix. Christmas Town and Halloween Town are copyright to Tim Burton / Touchstone_

_**A/N:** Christmas oneshot for all you AkuSai fans. As usual, this is the cut version, and the mature version is available on my livejournal. Happy Christmas!_

_**Rating: **T for suggestive themes and alcohol use._

* * *

**A Matter of Bait and Bite**

The moment Saix walks in with that deliciously awkward look on his face, Axel knows he doesn't need to worry about his creeping boredom any more.

"The Superior suggested – in all manner of evasiveness – that I am accompanied on my assigned mission, as it is liable to make me lose my patience and go berserk. I need to pair up."

Saïx and standard greetings just don't work. He's always been straight to the point, preferring to launch himself into things rather than treading on eggshells. But Axel's bored, and contrary to popular belief, Saïx is quite adept at having fun – it just depends on who he's with.

Axel says in answer, "Must be a painful mission. Well, have fun," and there's a three second silence, where he is meant to backtrack instead of enjoy the ice cold glare, and then Saïx says, "Fine. I'll ask someone else."

Axel swings his legs off his bed and approaches…well, approaches his colleague, it should be, but there are multiple ways to describe Saïx. Best friend, eternal rival, resigned lover, haughty boss, the bane of his life? Tonight, Axel decides he will have to go with _hot and huffy mate_.

So, he pulls on his coat, approaches Saïx and takes the mission brief in one smooth action. "You're awfully quick to get pissy these days," he remarks idly. "I don't see why. Nothing's changed between us."

Which is a lie, of course. They used to be joined at the hip (quite literally, sometimes) but now they're drifting apart, because Saïx decided repression was a small price to pay for a boost in power. Their conversations are shorter, their nights only padded with pointless talk, their roles in the Organisation too different to ever cross. Axel doesn't mind that Saïx uses him as and when he needs to, the same way he would only remember a stapler exists when he needs to staple something. Better that than losing him altogether.

So Lea keeps telling him, and telling him…

And Axel has to admit, when Xemnas is not within a five mile radius of them, Saïx can be pretty pleasant, pleasant enough to let an echo of Isa ring through.

"Halloween Town," Axel reads off the mission brief. "We've done the place to death."

"Not the recently discovered hinterlands, we haven't." Saïx summons a portal, right there in Axel's room, where the smoky tendrils lick at the small expanse of marble tiles. He's not a man of patience at all. (Given his response to foreplay, Axel ought to know anyway.)

"According to Xigbar, Heartless have shown up in a place called Christmas Town."

"So says the one-eyed man, eh," Axel remarks.

"We can access the town through the hinterlands at Halloween Town."

"Like a world in a world?" Axel asks, and in the dark recesses of the corridor, Saïx gives a small nod, before they arrive in a cemetery that boasts not a single standing headstone. "By the way," says Axel, chancing to push Saïx a little. "You're more than welcome. I assume that at some point, you'll turn round and thank me for pairing up with you. You'd struggle to find anyone else."

Saïx appears to think about scowling, but he opts to gloss over the subtle taunt with a thin smile instead. "I imagine you would have a similar problem. Your mission success rate is particularly embarrassing."

Axel shrugs and watches as Saïx snaps the head of a lantern to illuminate the hinterlands. He wonders what Saïx is imagining when he does such a rough gesture, and rather hopes it isn't rooted back to him.

A few minutes into the hinterlands, where Saïx finds it difficult to agree to walk in step with him, Axel asks, "What's Christmas Town like?" as though they're kids again and this is another one of their made up adventures, where they're just in his bedroom but Isa depicts a scene and Lea shuts his eyes and imagines he's there instead.

"I don't know what it's like. We can do some recon while we're there." Saïx twists his mouth a little, and Axel knows that's a shadow of Isa's perplexity there, or maybe that's Saïx's resentment for not following through the question that laps at the past?

Axel is busy trying to avoid tripping on the brittle branches at his feet, when Saïx's fingers tip his chin, mimicking the soft but stern grip of a bird beak hooking over prey. "We're here."

The clearing, in all honesty, reminds Axel of what he would find after drinking one glass too much. Doors of weird shapes, carved into hollow tree trunks which, when opened, take them to a new world?

Then again, it isn't so absurd or different from their dark corridors; so, encouraged by this familiarity, Axel picks a door and pulls. Straightaway, the strong aroma of flowers and hot chocolate plague his senses, and he feels like he is being assaulted by an invisible botched perfume bottle. He's pretty sure he can hear a harp experimenting with arpeggios.

Saïx slams a hand on the pink bark. "Wrong door." He shoots an irritable look, the expression Isa perfected before he even reached double digits in age. "Why did you even pick that one?"

"Because it's a heart," Axel protests. "I thought it was pretty logical. I bet it goes to Kingdom Hearts. We'd land right in her arse crack."

Saïx – to his credit – waits patiently for Axel to finish, before gesturing to the correct door. "We're going to Christmas Town, not Kingdom Hearts'…oh, just get in."

Axel supposes that at the end of the day, it all comes down to habit. Everyone has habits, and Nobodies don't forget that so did their counterparts. Lea had a habit of making remarks about everything. Isa had a habit of responding – no matter what.

Saïx yanks open a green door that has wide, serrated edges and is decorated with sparkly bulbs. Axel inhales the homely smell of what might be pine and marshmallow, but then he detects the smoky scent of Saïx, and he realises that they're both at a door too small to accommodate them both.

"After you," says Axel. Saïx blinks.

"All right then. You will follow afterwards."

It's tempting, Axel thinks, to just turn and leave when Saïx goes through the jagged door gracelessly; but the smell of pine and burning logs grows stronger and it clouds his mind. Before he knows it, while preoccupied grasping at cold powder that the slinks through the air like a sigh, he's fallen (or pulled?) downwards, and he's going headfirst, down, down, down.

He worries – just a little – about how this freefalling is going to end, but he lands in something soft, and it's more of that powdery white stuff that sends a chill up his spine.

Snow, Lea recalls for him.

Axel waits a few seconds to get his bearings, and then he glances left at Saïx, who looks about as impressed as a cat in a bathtub. There's snow settling on his head, his legs are splayed and his eyes reflect the colourful glow of the town nearby.

"I resent this mission and it hasn't even started," he grumbles. "Help me up."

Well, Axel would, except he's having a bit of difficulty himself. They struggle for a moment, grasping at each other's sleeves and wrists – there has to be a metre of snow at least – before they haul themselves up at the same time.

"Right then," Saïx says placidly. The top of his head boasts a decent sprinkle of snow which, combined with his powder blue hair, reminds Axel of a summer sky he hasn't seen in years.

They walk – more wade, rather like battling through a giant soggy sponge – down the hill and Saïx pulls out his infamous clipboard, and his handwriting is exactly like Isa's, with every i dotted and every f's tail looped anticlockwise. "There appears to be an absence of Heartless activity in the centre of town at least. But we should check that."

"Do you have to use that clipboard? You look like my shrink."

Saïx's face flushes with hot annoyance; it's just too easy for them to fall back into habit. "I knew your shrink – I bloody introduced you to him – and comparing me to him is highly insulting."

Axel snorts, the way Lea always got an emotional high from listening to Isa's complaints. He kicks at the snow, which only thins a little when they reach town and wonder, quite honestly, what the fuck these residents have been drinking.

It's far too bright (how come they can see everything even though it's the dead of night?), too noisy, too damn cheerful. Fucking hell, Axel thinks, when he _really_ listens, there's even singing. Saïx is dangerously close to losing it. Axel can see his left eye twitch every time there's the sound of bells ringing.

"Greetings!" someone squeaks. "Merry Christmas!"

"Ah, it's an elf," Axel exclaims, and his gaze locks onto the round, cheerful face before he makes a crucial observation. "Hey, his ears are just like yours."

"So?" Saïx begins defensively (because Saïx's ears are…well, they're the sure fire way, the fast track route for Axel to get what he wants).

"Are you here to see if you're on Santa Claus' nice or naughty list?" the elf asks. "Do visit his house or workshop! But you have to hurry, because it's only a few hours before Christmas arrives!"

"Who's Christmas?" Axel asks.

"_What_'s Christmas?" the elf corrects in surprise. "Why, only the most important and exciting festive season of the year! It's a time of joy and merriment and gift giving! If you have been a good child this year, then Santa will deliver presents to your door!"

"We're not children," Axel is about to say, but given the elf's small stature, perhaps the blasted creature sees all people are giants.

The elf jumps up and down as he starts to point. Christmas is _that_ exciting. "That way is to Santa's house! That way is to the factory! That way is to the middle of town, where we have festivities all night!"

"What do you want to do?" Axel turns to Saïx, who has a look on his face that suggests he might be concussed. "Because I want to see if I'm on the nice or naughty list."

Saïx scowls, and Axel knows he's close to drawing out Isa, even if it is only in this world's small corner. It's just a matter of finding the right bait.

"You're a Nobody," Saïx snaps, "you don't exist. You won't be on either list."

"But if I _were _to be on a list," Axel coerces, "which one do you think?"

Saïx stares. "Which one?"

"Nice or naughty."

"Neither." Saïx holds his ground. "We're Nobodies, we're not emotionally capable—"

"No, no," Axel hushes, "enough with the automated responses."

His thumb touches on Saïx's cold lips, before his fingers graze the slightly damp curtain of hair and then brush the tip of his ear. Saïx gives an involuntary shudder, and Axel knows he's close. "You can pretend around me. I don't mind. You can act and fake it and forget that you're a Nobody, and I can play the game too, and I won't say a word to the Superior."

Saïx's face hardens, and his shoulders seize up as he contemplates the offer, and when his weight shifts from foot to foot, reflecting his decision, Axel takes advantage of the proximity. He watches Saïx's lips part in anticipation and his eyes flutter shut; and Axel ducks down a few centimetres to satisfy him, because who is he to deny a face like that? He goes to close the two inch gap between them and then—

"Uh uh uh!"

Axel opens an eye and the elf is wagging a finger up at them. "You're still here?"

"At Christmas time, you can only kiss your true love under mistletoe!" the elf cries, as if this is common knowledge.

"What the fuck is mistletoe?" Axel asks in an undertone.

"A plant of some sort," Saïx answers for him. "Though why I have to have its express permission in order to kiss you—" he falters, only comprehending now what he has been doing, and promptly returns to his stuffy self. "We're here for mission purposes."

But Axel doesn't have to worry. He's set the bait and the fish is clearly interested. He just needs it to bite.

"There's plenty of mistletoe around town. Oh! Shall I give you a hint?" The elf creeps forward and his hand curls round his mouth dramatically, and it occurs to Axel that with the singing and dancing and theatrics, this world is just one big pantomime. "I _did_ hear that Tommy put up something white and romantic at the welcome sign!"

"Great. We'll head there then," says Axel, in response to the hint that is more a neon road sign. Saïx mutters something about the mission, scribbling over his clipboard and trying to concentrate. It's no use, though. Lea wants to play, and Isa has never been able to deny him.

Thirteen steps into town, where they approach the factory and pass giant windup toys and start to remember the lyrics to the joyous songs in the street, then Axel spots the best thing he's seen all night.

"Ooh look, wine!"

Saïx abandons his clipboard in a flash. "Don't you dare!"

And the fish takes the bait and Axel grins. He seizes two uncorked bottles as three elves wish him Christmas cheer. He runs ahead, taking a mouthful and beckoning that Saïx follow. There's a slim chance that Saïx will go berserk, but Axel has years of experience in this. He knows how to get him to respond, and he knows how to draw out the desired response too.

It must be a bonus that comes with Lea.

"Put those bottles down now," Saïx orders, throwing his clipboard aside, because his mission has unceremoniously changed. It's not that he's dangerous. It's more that as soon as Lea gets even a drop of alcohol in his system, he's out of it and suddenly, Isa is the most beautiful thing in the world.

Axel holds out one bottle in a tantalising gesture, but Saïx is too far away to take it. The snowy terrain puts him at a disadvantage because he's heavier, and he stomps rather than skates; and Axel is having the time of his life watching this recurring scene of run and chase, through Lea's eyes.

"Come and get them," he calls, and he feels the fruity taste of the wine course through his blood and shoot to his head, and he's feeling light and merry and _just grand_. Saïx isn't far behind, making poor attempts at salvaging the wine as Axel wanders through the town and pulls at the outdoor lights because they look edible.

"Don't do that." Saïx pries the string from his grip, and Axel sloshes wine down their fronts. He appreciates the fact that Saïx hasn't summoned a portal in order to get to him (because Isa wouldn't have done it); instead, he's caught up in the old fashioned way of cornering him. "Axel."

That might be a reprimand on its way, so he tries to duck and escape, but Saïx snatches up one wine bottle for himself instead. Axel watches him drink, and his back slumps against the wall of the factory, and he wipes melting snow off his face.

They drink and drink, until their insides burn and their feet struggle to hold up their weight. Saïx throws his bottle aside and pushes up against him.

"Uh uh," Axel manages, swinging to one side. "Need mistletoe…" He spots a plant some feet away, and he thinks that will do. He seizes it by the stem, and he ignores Saïx muttering some dissent about it.

"Poinsettia, poinsettia," Saïx says – as if Axel knows what _that_ means, and he hoists the plant upside down so that he can finally get what he's been unable to stop thinking about. He settles his mouth over Saïx's, and that big, inconvenient red mistletoe drops out his grasp, smacking his shoulder and probably bruising it because it's actually really heavy. What kind of custom is it to hoist a massive plant over your head?

There's a drunken laugh from them both when they survey the plant and its upset pot, and Saïx pulls a despairing look that Isa liked to adopt as he wondered what he was going to with Lea. It's assuring, Axel supposes, that with a bit of coercion, he can make Saïx play, though he often wonders how long he can carry on getting away with it.


End file.
